Motherboard and processor recommendation

[Jeff Davis]

Greetings all, first of all thanks for all the help over the years. Whenever I had a question this is the first place I checked, and usually the last.

I need help selecting a new motherboard and processor that is compatible with Win7 Pro 64bit. I recently tried to install mine on a relatively new computer my son had given to me. After jumping through many hoops I finally got the OS installed. But after installing the motherboard drivers Windows Update popped up and informed me that my OS was too old for the hardware and that Windows 7 could not be updated. This was before the end of support last January. I could deal with that, but after installing the video drivers I got the BSOD and it would not boot. 3 total reinstalls later I finally gave up.

I'd like a recommendation for a solid Win 7 motherboard / processor that can support 16GB RAM. My current one only supports 8. My hobby is 3D design so the more RAM the better. I'd like an Intel board and proc with a decent number of USB ports. Onboard video would be a nice backup but not a deal breaker if it doesn't have it. Onboard sound and network would be needed and at least 4 SATA ports. A faster proc would be nice. The micro ATX board I have fills up the little HP case it is in, it would be nice to stick with the same size board but it's not a requirement. Money is an issue.

Is Newegg still a good place for good prices?

The specs on my current antique:

Asus IPIBL, micro ATX
Intel core2 quad, 2.40GHZ
RAM DDR2

Thanks for any help,
Jeff

 

[samuria]

Welcome to the forum. Why not just get win10 7 is out of support and no drivers will be written for new motherboards as firms have to pay to have them tested. Even if you find a board and cpu its going to be hit and miss and if you get it running you have a security risk out of support o/s

 

[SIW2]

Plenty of people running win7 beautifully on new machines. Updates are not an issue.
Releases . zeffy/wufuc . GitHub

Easiest is just to download simplix updatepack and run it.
https://mega.nz/file/Cgh1lLaA#PpYtiEDPestZtHiKlbB030ngaOzJFw2ap1-N5ae-83Y

after installing the video drivers

What video drivers? Is it for a dedicated card or on chip graphics ?. What is the machine -mobo, cpu grahics card ( if any), etc.?

There are win7 drivers for uhd620 hd630 etc
need driver for intel uhd620.

 

[SIW2]

I'd like a recommendation for a solid Win 7 motherboard / processor that can support 16GB RAM. My current one only supports 8. My hobby is 3D design so the more RAM the better. I'd like an Intel board and proc with a decent number of USB ports. Onboard video would be a nice backup but not a deal breaker if it doesn't have it. Onboard sound and network would be needed and at least 4 SATA ports. A faster proc would be nice. The micro ATX board I have fills up the little HP case it is in, it would be nice to stick with the same size board but it's not a requirement. Money is an issue.

You can get secondhand really cheaply now. depends what your requirement are. If you think "only" 4 cores/8threads is more than enough, you can get ivybridge for very little.

quad core i5 cpu for about £18-25 - a little more for the i7 with 8threads.
i5 3570s
i5 3570

16gb ram about £30
ddr3 ram

lga 1155 (ivybridge) mobo - b75/h77/z77 which have usb3, sata3 , and typically support 32gb ram. Those lga 1155 (ivybridge) boards are not as cheap as they were last year, but can still be had for around £40-50.

Pop in a 500gb ssd and it is very quick.



Or you could pick up a secondhand skylake machine - more recent than the ivybridge, not as cheap and not all that different in performance.

UserBenchmark: Intel Core i5-3570 vs i5-6400


For a sustantial performance increase, you would need to go for 6, 8 or more cores. Which ain't cheap, and might be far more than you would ever need. Depends if you enter international level gaming competitons, or engage in hi-def video encoding all day.

 

[Jeff Davis]

Hi Samuria, I have programs that are not compatible with Win 10 that I must keep. I have to run them in compatibility mode under Win 7 as it is. I was about ready to switch to Win 10 before I found that out.

Thank you SIW2, my son's comp is gone, a month after I tried the Win 7 install he needed it back so it ended up working out. At least for him. I had imaged his Win 10 install so was able to put it back for him. I really appreciate your advice, it's just what I was looking for. I'll do some research based on your suggestions to get the most bang for my bucks. I'm trying to keep it to about $400. It sounds like I should be able to get quite a loud bang! RAM is the most important need, the 3D program really sucks it up with some large files I work with. I did finally get a SSD about 6 months ago and it makes a great difference.

I love my Win 7, solid as a rock for me. I've been shoveling money to Billy since Win 95, 7 is the best he's come up with in my opinion although XP was pretty good. I knew that it was inevitable but I'm not happy that it's no longer supported and will have to trust other software to keep me secure.